The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about a lost continent of agricultural abundance inhabited by a handsome race who built magnificent temples and palaces and lived off the fat of the land until the coming of a great flood, when it sunk without trace. Plato called it Atlantis and claimed it had really existed. Some historians say his description of this earthly paradise perfectly matches the topography of the Canary Islands.
The Fortunate Islands, as they were nicknamed, are a volcanic archipelago of seven islands and six islets 100 kilometres off the African coast with a landscape unlike any other in Europe or Africa, and a climate of perpetual springtime, temperatures rarely dipping below 19ºC in winter or rising above 27ºC in the summer . On some of Lanzarote’s beaches the sea is emerald green and sand coal dust black. The highest volcano, El Teide on Tenerife, (3718m) is Spain’s tallest peak and the third-tallest volcano in the world after two in Hawaii. Volcanic activity has ensured that the soil is very fertile and microclimates produce all kinds of vegetation, from desert cacti to heather – Gran Canaria is famous for its bananas and tomatoes - but there are no rivers. Some islands with no mountains to trap rain clouds rely on desalination plants for their drinking water. Except for Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the northern side of the islands is sub-tropical, while the south is drier and slightly warmer. Half of the Canaries’ 2000 plant species are endemic, including the dragon tree, an ancient survivor of the Ice Age. Among the 200 species of birds is the wild canary but unlike the domesticated variety, it is a dull brown colour. More than 40 per cent of the islands’ land mass is protected parkland.
Colonised officially by Spain in 1821, because of their isolation they had remained in almost prehistoric conditions until post-Middle Ages when they became a port of call for ships on their way to the New World. The original natives, the Guanches, were fair skinned, blue eyed and tall. Some of their cave paintings can be seen today and date from as recently as the 14th century.
Today the Canaries are Europe’s top winter sun destination catering for more than eight million visitors a year. There are more than a dozen golf course resorts and small inland hotels are also being built to cater for rural tourism. There are some ugly mega-resorts around Playa de las Americas on Tenerife, Las Palmas on Gran Canaria and on Lanzarote, the main party islands, but stricter planning laws have meant that some of the newer developments are actually very attractive. Las Palmas even has a smattering of culture - a cathedral and several museums including one devoted to the explorer Christopher Columbus. Santa Cruz de Tenerife also has a city feel and is a port of call for the world’s largest cruise ships.
Lanzarote is, scenically, the most fascinating island of all. Massive craters surround the Fire Mountains of Timanfaya National Park. Two metres below the surface, the heat still generated from the last eruption more than two centuries ago is still fierce enough to make fire or barbecue a steak. The islanders have capitalised on this natural tourist attraction to do just that at the park’s El Diablo restaurant where it really can be said the cooking is from hell.
Taking It To The Limit
Its outrageous nightlife has been documented by the media ad nauseam but its stunning scenery is equally excessive. Indeed Ibiza, the chicest of the Balearic Islands, is an altogether alternative Spanish experience. Report by Belinda Beckett.
Nothing is in moderation on the island of Ibiza. Even Mother Nature has been over-indulgent, endowing this 572 square kilometre rocky outcrop in the Mediterranean with a superfluity of beautiful sandy coves curved like white crescent moons around the base of sheer cliffs which disappear into dense, sweet scented pine forests. It is also blessed with an indigenous population who are delightfully blasé about the annual invasion of thousands of tourists who come here to savour this Gift from the Gods and cast clothes and caution to the winds at a party that goes on all summer.
Indeed, it was because of the unique prevailing wind patterns over the island that the 15th century French astrologer and physician, Nostradamus, predicted Ibiza would be “Earth’s final refuge”, the only place capable of sustaining life after the nuclear holocaust. Invasion and mysticism have been two recurring themes on Ibiza - or Eivissa as it is now called in Catalan - ever since the Ancient Greeks landed around 1600 BC to help themselves to the island’s ‘white gold’ - the salt, still collected today from the flats around the southern tip. During the hot summer months, the water evaporates, leaving a sparkling crust which turns sugar icing pink at sunset. The early Phoenecians who settled on the island later thought it was magical because the rich red soil is non volcanic which mysteriously prevents the survival of any reptile, animal, insect or plant harmful to man. There is no vegetation at all on Es Vedra, a jagged islet in the bay of Cala d’Hort, the mysterious Bali Hai in the film South Pacific. This is believed to be the Sirens rock referred to in Homer’s Iliad and is still thought by many to possess a strange magnetic force capable of sinking ships, attracting UFOs and triggering other unexplained phenomena.
The island has also been occupied Carthaginians, Romans, Goths and Moors but unlike mainland Spain after the Reconquest, it continued to be invaded by pirates, to the extent that the islanders built fortress walls around their churches and even fitted them with cannons to repel the unwelcome boarders. This century past it was invaded again. In the 1960s Ibiza and the neighbouring island of Formentera became a haunt of the beautiful people who came with their hippy beads, guitars and flower power to smoke pot on the beaches and preach their own brand of mysticism. Some are still there, a little grey haired and long in the tooth now but still beautiful inside, selling their batik wraps, leather moccasins and silver jewellery at Es Cana’s Hippy Market. Perhaps its colourful past is why nothing, not even today’s cross-dressed drink and drug crazed teenage tourists with their all night raves and acid house music, surprises the Ibicencos any more.
Because it is for its wild clubbing scene, catering for as many sexual persuasions as modern musical tastes, that the island is reputed today and the capital, Ibiza Town is the place to move to the groove at Europe’s best venues to sounds played by top line DJs. There’s Amnesia, which started the acid house revolution, luxurious El Divino with its garage and US house mixes, Pacha the grand dame of Ibiza clubs offering techno, funky and salsa, Privilege (formerly Ku, forerunner of the club scene) for some the only reason for coming to the island - and with 14 bars, a swimming pool-dance floor combined and a 10,000 capacity, all enclosed in glass, it has to be seen to be believed. There is even a daytime disco, Space, which starts at 8am and continues on Sundays for 22 hours - not for the faint hearted. The clubs don’t get going until around 4am and as most are outside the old town, a disco bus provides a shuttle service.
The capital hides its predilection for hedonism in its exorbitant, unexpurgated, 100 per cent proof form behind noble medieval walls which rise up like a natural extension of the rocky cliffs protecting the harbour. This is Ibiza’s only original town - the others being man made resorts developed around villages - and it is by far its most attractive. The High Town (Dalt Vila) as the old walled citadel is known, was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1999. Entered by an imposing triple gateway and crowned by a 13th century Gothic cathedral, there is a rabbit warren of interesting streets to explore and the walls can be walked on in parts, offering vertiginous views. Some of the finer international restaurants are to be found here such as El Olivio in Plaça de Vila as well as one or two unassuming museums, some very chichi modern art galleries and boutiques, the La Torre del Canónigo aparthotel - the island’s most luxurious address - and the bizarre men-only gay club, Anfora, built into a natural cave. Sa Penya, in the lower town, is less noble but more atmospheric, squatting between the ramparts and the waterfront, crammed with shops, restaurants and bars, the place where everyone converges come evening. Then the hustling starts as scores of outrageously dressed bar PRs attempt to lure tourists into their establishment and not the one next door.
San Antonio, or San An as it is popularly called, is on the opposite side of the island travelling due west. A huge manmade high-rise resort, it is at last making an effort to shrug off its reputation as a paradise for fighting, fornicating British package tour yobbos (and yobbesses) - a reputation greatly enhanced by fly-on-the-wall documentaries like Sky TV’s Ibiza Uncovered which, true to its title, left no aspect of human behaviour to the imagination. However an attractive Sunset Strip of new chillout bars has developed around the bay, providing a refuge for more those who enjoy more considered pleasures. The glass roofed Es Paradis and blue domed Eden are the resort’s top clubs.
Santa Eulalia on the east coast, is the only other place on the island that could be called a town, a seaside resort favoured by families with a 16th century hilltop church and an ethnological museum but little else worthy of mention. Santa Eulalia, like all the resorts are big on boat trips - glass bottomed tours, excursions to remote beaches which are inaccessible by land, day trips to Formentera where nude sunbathing the norm.
Ibiza’s real delights - its rugged coastline, vivid turquoise blue waters and tiny deserted calas (cove beaches), are not hyped. They are the dark bits you see at night between the beaded lights of the resorts, like the string between the pearls on a necklace. Low season - October to May - is the time to discover an Ibiza that moves to a more tranquil rhythm, to hire a car, leave the resorts behind and take an exhilarating ride on a coast road that snakes through pine forests around a myriad sparkling bays. Or to head for the hills through scented orchards, vineyards and watermelon fields. Or to walk through cool whitewashed hamlets where sundried old men play dominos in the village bar and old women in black sit regally upon dining room chairs placed on the pavement outside their front doors, where sleeping dogs lie where the mood takes them and time stands still.
The Mallorquíns joke that there is a fifth Balearic island called Majorca (English spelling) inhabited by eight million savages. They refer, of course, to the tourists who descend upon Spain’s most maligned holiday resort to enjoy a holiday of hedonism.
Mallorca is used to visitors, although not always to welcoming them. Its strategic position has attracted invaders for 2,000 years. The Greeks named the islands Ballein in reference to its slingshot fighters, the Romans planted vineyards and olive groves, the Moors brought almonds, oranges and windmills to irrigate the land and for many years the island was also occupied by pirates.
Today it suffers a multi-cultural invasion of holidaymakers from all parts of the world but not all of them are looking for kicks in the mega resorts of Magaluf and Palmanova. Many come seeking tranquillity in more natural surroundings and, believe it or not, actually find it.
Indeed, the spread of development, even after 50 years, is surprisingly limited, essentially to the 30-kilometre Bay of Palma. Elsewhere, there are still many smaller resorts to be discovered, such as Santa Ponça, Peguera and Port d’Andratx, where fishermen mend their nets on the quayside, unruffled by the jet set and their glamorous yachts.
Inland, green tourism flourishes. The wetlands of S’Albufera Natural Park are paradise for bird watchers and home to ospreys and finches, black storks, swifts or rainbow-coloured bee-eaters. The Serra Tramuntana, the dramatic Mountains of the North Wind which stretch the length of the western shore, provide wonderful walking trails. Visitors can stay on farms, in village lodgings or even in a monastery – five on the island rent out renovated cells at exceptionally inexpensive rates.
The pink city of Palma is another of Mallorca’s assets. The capital of the Balearic Islands is as vibrant and urbane as many of the mainland cities, a splendid ensemble of lively shopping areas, maze-like streets, ancient archways and refurbished old buildings enclosed by the ruins of the city walls and bordered by smart new boulevards. Viewed from the port, its Gothic cathedral towering up above the medieval ramparts, it is especially enchanting.
The heart of town is Plaça Major, where street musicians serenade tourists taking their ease at open air cafés under the lime trees. Palma also has a palace - the Palau de l’Almudaina, originally occupied by the Moorish governors and later the Mallorcan kings - a Baroque town hall, several Renaissance mansions and an Arab baths. Castell de Bellver, Spain’s only circular castle, perches on a hilltop on the edge of town above scented pines and golden mimosa.
Port de Sóller is one of the most popular resorts on the west coast, its horseshoe-shaped bay the most photographed spot on the island, but compared to the high jinks of the Palma Bay resorts it’s positively staid. Its crescent, palm-fringed bay is the perfect spot for a romantic dinner. A wooden train dating from 1912 links Sóller to Palma, rattling through citrus orchards and no less than 13 tunnels. Nearby is the artists’ village of Deià, a jumble of cobbled lanes and houses with cappuccino walls tottering up the sun-drenched slopes. The light is translucent, the sky luminous blue, ideal for poets and painters seeking inspiration. Neighbouring Valldemossa has a Carthusian monastery where Chopin and George Sand spent the romantic winter of 1838.
Glorious scenery and sunshine attract celebrities, their luxurious villas peeping here and there in the greenery. The Spanish Royal Family have a holiday villa here as do Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas who are strongly involved in the preservation of the west coast.
With the drive towards conservation tourism and the new eco-tax levied on tourists, the much-invaded island of Mallorca is well on the way to redressing the architectural sins of its forefathers and preserving its natural assets for generations of invaders to come.